Learn to reverse paths for Motion Path animations in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

Author:Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

OS: Windows XP and higher

Date Created: April 11, 2012Last Updated: June 29, 2012

Now that you have learnt how easy it is to
add motion paths using
presets, and draw
your own custom motion paths, it is time that you start getting more familiar with some tricks used with motion path
animations. The simplest motion path trick is the reverse motion path option. This option is very helpful if you want an
object to animate using a motion path, and then animate again from the end of the motion path to the beginning!

Follow these steps to learn how to reverse your motion paths animation:

Launch PowerPoint 2010. Most of the time PowerPoint will open with a new slide in a presentation -- PowerPoint 2010
users can change the slide layout to
Blank by selecting Home tab | Layout | Blank. Now,
access the Shapes gallery, and then choose any shape. Click once on the blank slide to
place a shape.

Now, select the shape to which you applied the motion path animation, and you shall be able to see a
dashed line representing the motion path (as shown in Figure 1 below). This dashed line has green and
red arrowheads at both its ends, the green arrowhead represents the starting point of the motion path whereas the red
arrowhead represents the end point.

Figure 1: Shape with a motion path animation applied

Now, select the motion path by clicking on the dashed line, and right-click carefully to bring up a contextual
menu with three options as shown in Figure 2. Choose the Reverse Path Direction
option.

Figure 2: Reverse Path Direction option to be selected

As soon as the Reverse Path Direction option is selected, you'll see a preview of the reversed
animation. Also notice that now the green and red arrowheads have swapped positions, as shown in Figure 3
(compare with Figure 2 above).

Figure 3: Swapped arrowheads

Tip: You can duplicate an object that contains a motion path animation, align it next to the original
object, and then reverse the motion path of the duplicated object. You can then add an exit and entrance animations to the
original and duplicated objects. The animation build sequence would thus be:

Note: Did you notice the other two options (Edit Points and Close Path)
within the contextual menu shown in Figure 2 above? These may or may not have been grayed out depending
on the nature of your motion path. Confused? Don't worry -- we cover this in our
Open and Close Motion
Paths and Edit
Points in Motion Paths tutorials.